The 2021/22 Heineken Champions Cup draw will be held on Wednesday, July 21st at 12:00 pm.
The draw will be staged in Lausanne, Switzerland where the tournament’s governing body, the EPCR’s headquarters are.
It will be streamed live on HeinekenChampionsCup.com and will include the winners of the three domestic leagues involved in the competition – Top 14 and Champions Cup holders Stade Toulousain, Gallagher Premiership winners Harlequins and Pro14 winners Leinster.
The draw will consist of eight teams from the three leagues mentioned above, as it did last season.
The teams who have qualified from the three leagues will be listed from one to eight for the draw, with number one being the champions.
The clubs will first be placed into four tiers based on their rankings, before being drawn into two pools of 12 – Pool A and Pool B.
Clubs from the same league in the same tier will not be drawn into the same pool.
Tier 1 will have numbers one and two on the qualifiers in it with Tier 2 having numbers three and four.
Tier 3 will have numbers five and six while Tier 4 will have numbers seven and eight.
The Tier 1 and the Tier 4 clubs which have been drawn in the same pool, but which are not in the same league, will play one another home and away during the pool stage.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 sides that are in the same pool but not from the same domestic league will do the same.
For example, Champions Cup and Top 14 double winners, Stade Toulousain, will be in Tier 1 and drawn against either Bath Rugby or Wasps, and against either Cardiff Rugby or Glasgow Warriors from Tier 4.
Similarly, Bristol Bears in Tier 2 will be drawn against either Pro14 qualifiers Scarlets or Ospreys, and against either ASM Clermont Auvergne or Stade Francais from Tier 3.
Once the draw is concluded, clubs will know their pool stage opponents and EPCR will begin work on the fixture schedule with an announcement of exact dates, venues, kick-off times and TV coverage following as soon as practicable.
The 2021/22 tournament will be played over nine weekends with four rounds of matches in the pool stage starting in December when Stade Toulousain begin the defence of their title.
The eight highest-ranked clubs from each pool will qualify for the knockout stage which will consist of a Round of 16 on a home and away basis, quarter-finals and semi-finals, with the final in Marseille on 28 May 2022.
2021/22 Heineken Champions Cup qualifiers
Gallagher Premiership: 1 Harlequins, 2 Exeter Chiefs, 3 Bristol Bears, 4 Sale Sharks, 5 Northampton Saints, 6 Leicester Tigers, 7 Bath Rugby, 8 Wasps
Guinness PRO14: 1 Leinster Rugby, 2 Munster Rugby, 3 Ulster Rugby, 4 Connacht Rugby, 5 Scarlets, 6 Ospreys, 7 Cardiff Rugby, 8 Glasgow Warriors
TOP 14: 1 Stade Toulousain, 2 Stade Rochelais, 3 Racing 92, 4 Union Bordeaux-Bègles, 5 ASM Clermont Auvergne, 6 Stade Français Paris, 7 Castres Olympique, 8 Montpellier Hérault Rugby
Pool Draw tiers
Tier 1: Harlequins, Exeter Chiefs, Leinster Rugby, Munster Rugby, Stade Toulousain, Stade Rochelais
Tier 2: Bristol Bears, Sale Sharks, Ulster Rugby, Connacht Rugby, Racing 92, Union Bordeaux-Bègles
Tier 3: Northampton Saints, Leicester Tigers, Scarlets, Ospreys, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Stade Français Paris
Tier 4: Bath Rugby, Wasps, Cardiff Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Castres Olympique, Montpellier Hérault Rugby
